"In sending back the first delegation led by gentleman Sydney Mufamadi with tails between legs, Mnangagwa simply racked up pressure on himself. Now the ANC sends in the hard man (Magashule)," said Professor Stephen Chan, according to a Zimlive report.
For once, I totally agree with Stephen Chan; by denying that there was no political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe and humiliating President Cyril Ramaphosa’s first envoy; Mnangagwa crossed the double red line!
The corona virus pandemic has forced many Zimbabweans who had gone to SA and the other neighbouring countries to escape political oppression and economic poverty to return back home. The tide of humanity has since slowed to a trickle as word got round that the economic situation in SA, Botswana, etc. are bad but nothing compared to that in Zimbabwe. Nothing!
Mark my words, as soon as the corona virus pandemic blows over, the flood gates of Zimbabweans going back to SA, Botswana, etc. will open! Indeed, President Ramaphosa knows this too. “We are having to deal with a situation on our borders,” he reminded Mnangagwa.
"We are in a situation where everyone who wants a distraction from their own issues, takes a potshot at Zimbabwe," tweeted Mangwana; in sheer exasperation of one who knows the game is up.
President Mnangagwa will not dare stop Ace Magashule, ANC secretary general, led special envoy nor stop the delegation meeting with whoever else they want in Zimbabwe.
All Mnangagwa will do now is line up his Government Organised NGOs (GONGO), POLAD, etc. They will repeat one after the other, ad nauseam, that the July 2018 elections were free, fair and credible the Zanu PF regime is the legitimate government in Zimbabwe. They will concede the need for political unity and some power sharing arrangement but would insist on Zanu PF playing the leading role.
Chamisa will line up his civic society ducks too and they will tell Comrade Magashule Chamisa won the July 2018 presidential race (they will ignore the fact that he, just like ZEC, failed to produce the V11 forms, etc.) and legitimacy can now be restored by appointing Chamisa and a few other MDC leaders ministers in a power sharing arrangement.
To find a meaningful solution to Zimbabwe’s 40 years of political and economic crisis one must first acknowledge its root cause - the country’s failure to hold free, fair and credible elections. Of course, Zanu PF blatantly rigged the July 2018 elections. The regime is illegitimate and must step down.
President Ramaphosa should know that a Zanu PF and MDC GNU will never implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections, the pre-requisite for good governance and ending the crisis in Zimbabwe. He has in his cabinet individuals like Minister Lindiwe Zulu who were heavily involved in the 2008 to 2013 GNU that failed to implement even one reform. It is naive, to say the least, to expect the same Zanu PF and MDC leaders from the 2008 GNU to implement the reforms this second time round.
President Ramaphosa does not have the political will to tell Mnangagwa he rigged the July 2018 elections and must step down. He will, instead, propose a new Zanu PF and MDC GNU in Zimbabwe knowing fully well it too, just like the 2008 GNU, will not end the crisis.
Zanu PF will never ever reform itself out of office. Never! By imposing yet another Zanu PF GNU President Cyril Ramaphosa will be racking up political and economic pressure on himself and SA because he will have, knowingly, inherited the Zimbabwe crisis as his own!
@ Nomazulu
ReplyDeleteMnangagwa thinks whites are stupid!
May be Eddie Cross was talking of a Z$ trillion economy by the year! With inflation at 840% already, it will not take long to get there. In 2008, before the scrapped the Z$, kids had Z$1 trillion notes for lunch! Never saw so many trillionaires who were as poor as a church mouse!
Newsday
ReplyDelete“First, it should be known to Ramaphosa that this is not the first time his country has intervened in Zimbabwe. In 2009, the intervention of former President Thabo Mbeki resulted in the formation of a unity government between the late former President Robert Mugabe and the two MDC formations.
“The life of the unity government brought relative stability to Zimbabwe, but more could have been achieved had Mbeki not gone to bed wit Zanu-PF hardliners through his quiet diplomacy.
“Thus, Mbeki's mediated solution to the country was not permanent. Zimbabwe has moved a complete circle and is back where it was.
“With this in mind, Ramaphosa should make a genuine effort to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis once and for all, or else, Zimbabweans running away from a crisis back home will remain a burden on South Africa's social safety nets.”
I totally agree with your appeal to President Ramaphosa “to make a genuine effort to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis”.
However I do not agree that the 2008 GNU failed to implement even one reform to get Zimbabwe out of the crisis President Mbeki had “gone to bed with Zanu-PF hardliners through his quiet diplomacy”. It was Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends who had gone to bed with Zanu PF! Please get your fact right!
ReplyDelete“President Ramaphosa does not have the political will to tell Mnangagwa he rigged the July 2018 elections and must step down. He will, instead, propose a new Zanu PF and MDC GNU in Zimbabwe knowing fully well it too, just like the 2008 GNU, will not end the crisis,” you said.
I totally agree that President Ramaphosa does not he the political will and vision to tell Mnangagwa to step down and will go for the easier option of a Zanu PF and MDC GNU know it will be a waste of everyone’s time. When it is clear the new GNU was indeed a waste of time, he would then insist that it was the solution Zimbabweans themselves wanted.
No thinking Zimbabwean would want a solution that he/she knows will not solve the problem and so President Ramaphosa must never be left in any doubt that no thinking Zimbabwean out there want this Zanu PF led GNU.
Since President Ramaphosa lacks the will and vision to tel Mnangagwa to step down, then he must step aside himself and let those who have what it takes, do it. That is not too much to ask!
@ Derrick Ndlovu
ReplyDelete“Well Patrick, article is indeed explaining the errors which became the root causes of the problems we face today. Indeed Zanu pf has driven us into the wilderness. Indeed MDC too has poured petrol on the burning fire by way of their continuous splits as one of them.
“While it is good to put the blames squarely on their doorsteps, we appear not to proffer what we believe will be good for the country. Who in particular should lead in the event that Zanu pf has been forced to step aside.
“We should be seen to be good in pulling down those who seem climbing up the tree without saying who we need to climb up there. Now Ramaphosa will be left without any choice besides GNU if we don’t lead him saying who we expect to take up the reigns should that time arise. We have to have our candidate for that if the current players don’t make the grade.”
The first task here is to convince President Ramaphosa to accept that he and SADC are not in a position to tell Mnangagwa to step down because they have already endorsed the July 2018 elections as having been credible and the Zanu PF regime as legitimate. SA and SADC can play the supportive role but not the leading role; that should be left to the UN or some such organisation.
It is for President Ramaphosa, SA, SADC and the AU to invite the UN. He is visiting the UN as AU chairman, he should raise the subject with UN Secretary General António Guterres.
The UN can have a proposed roadmap for Zimbabwe complete with the budget estimate, staffing requirements and even financial institutions to bankroll the operation within a week.
Instead of an ANC envoy which is there to clandestinely impose a Zanu PF led GNU we should have a UN envoy offering a practical way how we can finally get the democratic reforms implemented.
The UN has the staff with years of experience on what Zimbabwe must do and can help recruit Zimbabweans to who will get the job done. Zimbabwe is in serious trouble and we must have the humility to accept help and not to be unduly obsessed about Zimbabweans doing everything.
Charamba said South Africa's actions raised suspicion that Pretoria was being used as a pawn in United States diplomacy, adding that only Zimbabwe had the capacity to play a stabilising role in the Sadc region.
ReplyDelete"Lastly, whence comes this impression that South Africa can intervene in Zimbabwe, assuming there are grounds for such intervention?" Charamba tweeted yesterday under a pseudonym @Jamwanda2.
"On what basis, what might, what capacity, beyond that of solidarity, camaraderie and good-natured concern by a neighbour? South Africa is the youngest State in our region. It faces myriad problems of along apartheid. It has no capacity to help any African State in Sadc, beyond friendly solidarity.”
SA is the economic power house in the region and it is playing a leading role in the economic prosperity in the region. By the same token, SA has a lot to lose because of the continued economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe.
It is all very well for Charamba to be so dismissive of SA, he does not care about the millions of Zimbabweans who have been forced to flee to SA to escape the political oppression and/or economic hardship back home. Indeed, the fight here is about restoring the freedoms and rights of all Zimbabweans which the Zanu PF regime has systematically denied them for the last 40 years. It is no surprise the regime is in denial over the corruption, vote rigging, oppression, everything!
Freelance journalist Hopewell Chin’ono and opposition politician Jacob Ngarivhume left prison on Wednesday night, 43 days after they were arrested accused of inciting public violence.
ReplyDeleteTwo High Court judges on Wednesday separately granted bail to the two men, ruling that the lower court erred in denying them bail.
Ngarivhume was ordered by Justice Siyabona Musithu to deposit bail of Z$50,000, report three times weekly to a police station, surrender his passport and was also banned from using his Twitter account.
The regime’s objective in these arrests and harassments is to intimidate the populous into submission. As the economy continues to sink deeper and deeper into the abyss the regime will resort to more and more oppressive measures to silence all dissent. The pressure for change is building up and there is a real danger of the whole thing exploding unleashing death and destruction!
Speaking to NewZimbabwe.com Tuesday, MDC-Alliance secretary for international relations and cooperation Gladys Hlatywayo said these were signs that South Africa understood the implications of a neighbouring country that is turmoil.
ReplyDelete"It shows you that the Zimbabwe crisis is more of a domestic policy problem for South Africa than a foreign policy issue due to the impact it has on South Africa.
"That is why President Cyril Ramaphosa referred to the crisis on the Beitbridge border," she said
If President Ramaphosa had any inkling of what is the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis much less what to do about it, then he would know that it is Zimbabwe’s rotten political system. A system that has failed to deliver free, fair and credible elections for 40 years and counting.
He would know that Zanu PF has corrupted the state institution to create a de facto one-party dictatorship with the carte blanche powers to rig elections to stay in power.
President Ramaphosa would also know that Zimbabwe had its get-out-of-jail card during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. SADC had forced Mugabe and Zanu PF cronies to sign the Global Political Agreement agreeing to the implementation of a raft of democratic reforms designed to dismantle the dictatorship and end the curse of rigged elections.
Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends were tasked to implement the reforms. They failed to get even one reform implemented in five years. Not one!
If President Ramaphosa knew what he is doing in Zimbabwe then he would know the solution to ending the crisis is to get the bloody reforms finally implemented. Since both Zanu PF and MDC failed to get even one reform implemented during the last GNU, we have to find someone else to do it.
Zanu PF rigged the 2018 elections, the regime is illegitimate and must step down. The only dialogue anyone should have with Mnangagwa and his cronies is to make it clear the regime is holding the nation to ransom and this can no longer be permitted.
Zanu PF must be told in no uncertain terms that it is illegitimate and must step down!
“Zimbabwe’s officialdom is notorious for not acknowledging any crisis,” said Prof Moyo.
ReplyDelete“It has never at any point in the life and history of our country acknowledged the existence of a crisis. As far as the official line is concerned, it is immune from crisis. It is a kind of paradise on earth. The tendency of the officialdom is to at least present the country as one that has not really gone through any crisis since 1980.”
Prof Moyo said the authorities in 2017 failed to acknowledge that the military coup which deposed Mugabe was a crisis.
“There was a crisis in the republic,” said Prof Moyo.
It is refreshing to hear Professor Moyo finally admit that Zanu PF will never acknowledge its failing. But since the country, is a de facto one-party state, the people have been denied a meaningful say on the matter.
It is laughable how every time Professor Moyo open his mouth to admit just how evil Zanu PF is he would try his best to draw the line on day of the 2017 military coup as the day Zanu PF became evil.
The truth is Zanu PF became evil the day the party decided to deny the people of Zimbabwe the freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country and even the right to life. Zanu PF murdered over 20 000 innocent Zimbabweans in the Gukurahundi massacre; that started in 1983, long before the 2017 military coup.
What is clear is we need a complete overhaul of our rotten political system and we cannot trust Zanu PF and MDC leaders to do this because they are the ones who landed us in this mess. We cannot trust even the Zanu PF rejects like Professor Moyo to implement the reforms because Zanu PF and the system was perfect until the 2017 military coup!
“I suppose it is fair to say that the denial of the crisis by the government, by Zanu-PF and by the ruling political class is in itself a crisis,” said Prof Moyo.
THE World Council of Churches (WCC) has rallied behind local church leaders being vilified by government for pointing out its heavy handedness on civilians.
ReplyDeleteThe WCC urged the clerics to "unite and stand together in such difficult times".
In a statement on Thursday, WCC interim general secretary Ioan Sauca said the global church body was deeply worried with developments in Zimbabwe, particularly the gross human rights violations by State security agents and government's denial that the country was in a crisis.
"We are deeply aware of the difficult situation the church is passing through in Zimbabwe and we call on the church of God to unite and stand together in such difficult times," Sauca wrote.
What people should not forget here is that if the regime is this ruthless with Church leaders, prominent journalists, etc. how much worse it is to the ordinary people. In Zimbabwe it is no exaggeration to say povo, especially the rural peasants, are nothing more than medieval serfs totally beholden to the overbearing Zanu PF chefs and their proxies.
In Zimbabwe, it is the accept normal practice for State assistance to be distributed along party lines, for example. Indeed, even donors have often been forced to hand over their assistance to the government which then used its party structures to distribute.
Then there is the wanton violence, we all know the tragic story behind the Gukurahundi massacre. Zanu PF has continued to use brute force to retain the de facto one party state to this day!
The people of Zimbabwe are craving for the restoration of their freedoms and basic human rights and a life in dignity. We welcome WCC’s support in our fight for justice and life with human dignity.